Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Boehner's millions

automat --

Yesterday, Republican John Boehner escalated his campaign to become the next Speaker of the House. He gave a "major speech" in Cleveland -- much-hyped by his staffers, who told reporters that this, finally, was the moment when the GOP would introduce its economic agenda.

After all the build-up, all we heard was another list of what Republicans are against.

Every supposedly new idea was more of the same. He wants to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich. He wants to repeal health insurance reform. He opposes clean-energy legislation.

Nothing he offered would move America forward.

The only thing Boehner seems serious about is raising campaign cash. After the speech, he told reporters that he's prepared to help Republicans spend $50 million to win back Congress.

We can already guess what he'll do: tap the special interests. He'll work the phones and call in every favor. He'll lean on the big-dollar donors and the corporate lobbyists.

Democrats have a different plan. We're asking supporters like you to make a contribution to the By the People Fund. If we can collect 3 million grassroots donations, we can compete with the Republicans in every race. And so far, that's exactly what we're doing.

On Tuesday, Boehner said his party deserves to win because it's time to "put the grown-ups in charge." What a bunch of nonsense.

The last time he and Republicans were in charge, they took a $237 billion budget surplus and transformed it into a $1.3 trillion deficit. They doubled the national debt and drove the economy into a ditch.

Under Boehner, this country would go right back to the failed Republican policies that cost us 8 million jobs, left the middle class in economic peril, and shifted our tax burden to the middle class by giving $100,000+ tax breaks to the wealthy.

To make sure that doesn't happen, we're planning to outwork the GOP in every district with a competitive race. We will knock on doors, make calls, and build the case for Democrats across the country.

But we're talking about the most aggressive voter turnout campaign for a midterm election in history. We need your help to get it done.